Honoring a Legacy: The unforgettable contributions of Hardin resident Tommy Small

By Marie Hughes, Chambers County Museum at Wallisville

There is nothing quite so rewarding as pouring something you are passionate about into another and watching it ignite a fire within them. Drillmaster Tommy Small of Hardin, Texas, has done exactly that over the years and has been rewarded exponentially.

He has invested his skill as a horseman into hundreds of equestrian protégés over a quarter of a century, an investment that has done much to enrich the lives of those under his leadership. However, placing yourself under his tutelage was not for the faint of heart; he expected discipline and excellence and was determined to draw it from you. Those who “stayed the course” were rewarded with a sense of pride and confidence in their horsemanship ability as they excelled as champions in their field.

Tommy moved from Mississippi to Texas in 1966 after his discharge from military service. Reflecting on his move, Tommy shared, “When I moved here from Mississippi, I was looking for something to do in the rodeo and with my horses.”

In Dayton, he met a man named Brown and his son Norman. Tommy recalled, “He was into drill team and at one time had a really fancy drill team. They had all the same color horses and rode on silver saddles and even performed at the Rose Bowl in California; he was really big time in it. He put together a little drill team in Dayton, and I got into it in 1967, riding on the team. That is how I started in drill team.”

The team was an adult team that eventually disbanded.

At that time, Tommy was dating a girl who was into barrel racing. Together, they started working with kids under the 4-H umbrella around 1968 or 1969.

“The first horse I bought when I got here was a little Appaloosa stallion, and of course, nobody wanted to ride with a stallion. There was another guy who lived in Dayton who had a stud horse, and he wanted to ride on Mr. Brown’s team. So, we rode drag, side by side, and never had any trouble. That’s how I learned drill, I rode drag,” Tommy said with a laugh.

Reflecting on his journey, Tommy explained, “I found out I could do it, and it was something to do with my horses. All we did back then was perform at rodeo shows; we didn’t do any competitions. I got married in ’72 and moved to the Rio Grande Valley, staying there until ’75. I got out of the drill at that time. I didn’t know if it stayed alive or not, but it did.”

After his divorce in 1985, Tommy returned to drills in about 1989 when his oldest daughter came to live with him. He bought her an old horse and got her started with the drill team. He wasn’t a drillmaster at that time; a girl named Renee Boyette, one of the original riders on the team, was running it with her husband. Their two daughters joined the team when they got old enough to participate, and the parents ended up as drillmasters.

“They kept it going for another couple of years then she and her husband wanted to get out of it. She conned me into taking it over,” Tommy chuckled. “I took it over and started running it in 1995, and that’s when we began going to the State Abilene competitions, placing fifth in ’95 which tickled me to death. Marie, I can’t tell you what really gave me a love for it, ‘cause I don’t know. I just knew it was something I enjoyed, and I was good at it. I got to work with music and figured out how to write the drills, which was challenging for me,” he said.

When asked how it made him feel when he saw the kids excel at what he had taught them, Tommy sighed and said, “How do I describe it… To see those kids do what they thought they couldn’t do when they first started and to see them accomplish unbelievable things that they thought they never could do… yeah, that was an adrenaline rush that I have no description for.”

He continued with emotion, “I mean, the thought of it still makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck. What those kids did in Oklahoma at the AQHA competition, to think of it makes me almost want to cry.” His voice broke with pride as he reflected on their achievements.

When credit was given to him for his role, Tommy humbly responded, “I know, but it was their work, their effort. If they hadn’t put something into it, they wouldn’t have gotten anything back. The work was hard, and we had some really bad times, but we had some really good times. We had some parents on the team that were really great at helping. That was my family… that was my life. I put everything into it I could because I wanted to see those kids succeed,” he said emphatically.

In 1997, Cheryl Taylor showed up with her granddaughter at one of the practices, and Debbie showed up with Monica, who was only 7.

“She wasn’t old enough to ride and compete in 4-H drill team, but we let her ride in practice, and by the time she turned 8 she was already riding pretty doggone good,” Tommy recalled.

During the following year, Tommy commandeered Debbie and Cheryl into the organization.

“That’s when we basically began to, as Cheryl says, step outside the box and do different things. That’s when we started to get more people in, getting enough to make two teams, our advanced team we called the Rebel Riders and our second string was called the Lone Star Riders. Once we got to that point things really began to improve for everybody because we could separate the advanced riders from the beginners and have some teams that could compete. It also gave the B team an incentive to improve so they could advance to the A Team. Cheryl and Debbie definitely made a big difference. The years they were there, and we worked together, we were able to do things others were not able to do,” Tommy said.

Debbie and Cheryl were both riding with the Sheriff’s Posse, and Debbie joined the drill team when Monica got old enough.

“I would go with Debbie and watch the kids ride, joining the team a couple months after Debbie and Monica,” said former drillmaster Cheryl Taylor.

Tommy was great at teaching drill, while Debbie and Cheryl were skilled with administrative tasks.

“Besides helping him train kids, we put our heads together and set up a business plan to enable the kids to have the funds to travel to State,” Cheryl explained. “There were two years we took 40 kids plus families to competition, and that takes a lot of money. The kids learned to work hard to earn the funds to enable them to compete, selling briskets and brisket sandwiches and finding sponsors for magnetic signs. Not only did they raise enough for their travel expenses but also to purchase the sewing supplies to make the beautiful costumes you and Belinda created for them. I’ll never forget when the teams competed at District in 2005 and won. That was the first year you and Belinda made the costumes, and Monica rode out after they won saying, ‘Ms. Marie, Ms. Marie, we rode better because we knew we looked good!’ Those words are still stuck in my head. You dressed them like champions, and they rode like champions, and you need to make sure you write that.”

Cheryl continued, “Most of the parents of the kids on the team didn’t have the funds to buy them a $5,000 horse, so most of them had between a $500 to $1,500 pasture horse to ride. Those kids took their horses, that only knew how to walk and eat grass, and within a year transformed them into champions! They had their horses doing dressage movements. We took maneuvers that were from advanced dressage, from the Lipizzaner Stallions, and incorporated it into their drills, and they mastered it. That took discipline, commitment, hard work, and sacrifice.”

The team also taught the kids to give back to the community that was so willing to support them.

“They participated in community service projects, purchasing items and filling Christmas boxes for Operation Christmas Child, visiting nursing homes, TVE bicycle giveaways at Christmas, helping citizens with clean-up after Hurricane Ike, and many more ways too numerous to mention. These were life skills they learned, skills that helped earn college scholarships for some and made each of them a valuable member of society,” she said.

Cheryl also noted the lesson of humility learned by the team members.

“When we were preparing for the 2005 State competition, we had some new riders that our B Team, the Lone Star Riders, believed would hurt their chances of placing at State, and they proceeded to grumble. The B Team had quite a large number of members, so we took enough from them to create a third team which we called The Young Riders. Your daughter, Tiffany, led that team, Marie. When the competitions were over at State, the Young Riders placed 4th in Fast Drill, and the B-Team placed fifth, teaching them a good life lesson in humility,” Cheryl said.

Tommy quit the drill team in 2013.

“Nicole (Pantalion) took over, but a couple years later her daddy died, and she had to walk away from it. They asked me to come back, and I did, mid-season of 2014. I was struggling to get the kids up to par, so I wrote a simplified drill and told them we were going to State whether we win, lose, or draw, but I let them know this was my last year,” he said.

“I had one little girl who had a gaited horse, and no matter how hard I worked, I could not get her to put that horse into a lope. That was the trottin’est cotton pickin’ horse I’ve ever seen. That sucker could long-trot faster than any horse could lope,” Tommy said with a laugh. “I fought and fought with her all year trying to get her to put him into a lope and I finally gave up. We got to State, and you know me, I get everybody out and we exercise in the morning and in the evening. I didn’t have high expectations that year, so I decided we were just going to get the horses out and make sure they didn’t colic, but at this point, I was pretty much done.”

“We were out there the last afternoon before the competition the next day, and that little girl was out there on her horse bareback with spurs on,” he stated with exasperation. “I stood there and watched her then headed in her direction, and what I said to her wasn’t even in my mind at that time. She thought I was really going to tear her up because she knew better than to be on her horse with spurs on, bareback. I can’t even recall her name right now, but I said to her, ‘Do you know what a hug is?’ She looked at me like she thought I’d gone crazy, and I told her I was serious, ‘Do you know what a hug is?’ She answered me, ‘Yes sir.’ I told her, ‘I’ll tell you what I want you to do. You take those long legs of yours and from your hips all the way down to your ankles, I want you to squeeze that horse and give him the biggest hug you can with your legs and keep the spurs out of him!’ She asked me why and I told her, ‘Don’t ask questions, just do what I tell you to. Just squeeze him tight and put some pressure on him. That’s right, now pick up the reins and get his head up.’”

When she did that, he watched that little ole horse pick his back up and bow up like he was going to try and buck.

“I said, ‘Now, hold that pressure on him and kiss him off into a lope.’ Well, she did, and that little horse picked up and hit the prettiest lope you ever saw in your life. She turned around and looked at me and grinned from ear to ear. To me, that was the biggest accomplishment that I had made all year,” Tommy noted with pure satisfaction. “She loped back around to me, and I told her, ‘I’ve been trying to get you to do that all year. Now, what are you going to do to that horse when you enter the arena tomorrow?’ She said, ‘I’m going to squeeze him and hug him real tight!’ I told her she better, or I was going to be really upset with her.”

He continued, “Like I said, our team’s drill was pretty simple, and the other teams had some more advanced maneuvers, so my hope for the kids was for them to just run a clean drill and finish well. When we started the drill the next day, I told the little girl as she came through the gate, ‘You better squeeze him!’ She went through at a lope and by golly, she loped every time it was called for in the drill. Those kids never hit a bauble, they did everything they were supposed to do right on time, but the other teams had problems and believe it or not, we won it! It actually blew my mind!” he exclaimed in disbelief. “We competed in precision the next day and took second place.”

Tommy Small’s journey with the drill team has been a remarkable saga of dedication, passion, and community spirit. Reflecting on the final chapter of his tenure, he shared some of the most poignant memories and experiences that marked his departure.

“That was the last year for me in 2015,” Tommy said. “It was something I really enjoyed for a lot of years. I had a lot of fun with it, I met a lot of people, made a lot of friends; it was just a way of life for me. I think the biggest adrenaline rush I got was when we went to Oklahoma and those girls went in and nailed that drill in front of all those people. I was actually in the back, and I saw those cowboys at the AQHA Show stop warming up their horses and line up at the rail to watch those girls ride.”

Despite the highs, there were also moments of disappointment.

“My biggest disappointment was that my granddaughter, Julie, didn’t get to ride with us because she failed to dress out for P.E., and they wouldn’t give her permission to leave school. We put Donna Crane’s youngest daughter, Jodee, in her place. She had already been practicing with the A Team and knew the drill. Yeah, that was a good trip and a good year. We made a clean sweep at every competition that year,” Tommy exclaimed with obvious pride.

Tommy’s approach to training was grounded in a strong work ethic and preparation.

“I always told them, ‘It’s not the will to win but the will to prepare to win that’s important,’ and I’m proud to say, they prepared well,” he proclaimed with a smile.

Over the course of his career, Tommy’s impact was profound.

“If you add my first years as a drillmaster and my last, I led the teams for over 25 years. During the last 21 years we placed first in 15 competitions, winning both precision and fast drill at State in five of those years. That’s not counting the district competitions, Nationals, and the Oklahoma competition, that was extra. We also performed for the World Port’s Convention in Pasadena in 2005 for internationals who had never seen a rodeo,” he noted.

His accomplishments were celebrated and remembered by many. Former drillmaster Debbie Cain added, “We had a custom made hardwood display case hand-crafted by drill team parent, J. W. Crane. It was filled with the trophies showcasing the team’s accomplishments since its inception and proudly displayed at the Liberty Boot Barn. The absolute saddest day for our team was when the new management decided it no longer belonged in their store. Without reaching out to anyone connected to the drill team, they loaded the beautiful case and all of its contents and disposed of it at the city dump, like the hard-earned accomplishments of our multi-county drill team were fit for nothing but the trash,” she scornfully stated. It was a sentiment to which Tommy whole-heartedly agreed.

As Tommy looked back on his years with the drill team, the sense of community and family stood out the most. “What I miss more than anything is the Drill Team family, the get-togethers,” he said solemnly. “Drill Team was a lot of work, but it kept me alive, it kept me moving, it kept me going. Life did not get dull, there was always something going on. I sure do miss it a lot.”

The Liberty County 4-H Mounted Drill Team rose to unbelievable heights under Tommy’s leadership. However, he was quick to emphasize that the team’s success was not due to his direction alone. He had a dedicated support team, with Cheryl Taylor and Debbie Cain partnering with him as drillmasters the longest. Tammie Turner had the next longest tenure, beginning as drillmaster of the B-Team in the 2005-2006 season, eventually assisting as drillmaster of the A-Team and continuing in that role until 2014. Nicole Pantilion assisted as drillmaster for a few years, and Rex Robertson joined as a drillmaster during the 2009-2010 season, continuing until 2011. There were others who came before and after who also contributed significantly to the team.

The team also benefited from an amazing group of parents who each brought their own skill set to the table. Some prominent ones included Carol Catlin and Anne Scott, financial experts who used their exceptional CPA skills to establish a top-notch bookkeeping system. Anne’s daughter Cheryl Teel provided detailed spreadsheets to keep everyone informed of financial goals; Belinda Richard, with her exceptional visionary skills, designed beautiful show-stopping costumes and provided guidance on their construction; and Chester Fregia, whose award-winning brisket and barbecue allowed for significant fundraising to help send the team to State competitions.

There were also those who quietly worked in the background, never seeking accolades. Cheryl’s late husband, Jimmy Taylor, was one of those with the common sense to know what needed to be done and the ability to do it. Special recognition goes to Patti Finley, Carol Catlin, and Wendy Bode, who made substantial financial contributions to provide tack and costumes for the horses.

Tommy was the rock, the glue that held the team together, the patriarch who made the team a family. Like all families, there were occasional disagreements, but when push came to shove, everyone rose to the occasion. The Liberty County 4-H Mounted Drill Team owes much of its success to Tommy’s commitment, devotion, and sacrifice for all the team members under his watch.